My Boy's a Superhero

A Walk in the Woods

As Aaron and I made it to chemistry class—which I wasn't in the mood for listening to another boring lecture, I happened to find Jack sitting alone again.

"Hey Aaron, if you don't mind, I'm going to talk to Jack for a bit. I'll catch you later, kay?" I told him.

He nodded before turning to one of his friends in the classroom and talking away with them.

Jack, yet again had his hoodie up on his head and his face was pointed down at his desk. I'll bet he didn't even notice that I was standing over top of him. I lightly pulled the chair out from under the desk, resulting in a loud squeak from the legs rubbing on the floor. Jacks head then turned to face me.

His knitted his eyebrows together when his deep eyes met mine. "What're you doing here?" He asked in a stultified tone.

While shrugging, I responded, "I wanted to know how your project was going with Jordan."

"I finished it already."

"Already? It doesn't need to be finished for a while," I laid my elbows on the table and turned more towards him. His body posture stiffened.

"Well, I've had some spare time to get it done. And Jordan still isn't at school." He pointed out. "How far along on the project are you then?"

I gave a sheepish smile, "We actually haven't started yet."

He raised his eyebrows, "Really? Well if you need any help you can just ask me. I like science anyway."

"Yeah for sure, thanks. Aaron and I kinda got carried away with something else." Jacks face fell and I immediately regretted saying that to him.

He cleared his throat. "Okay, understandable."

"I-I didn't mean to tell you that." I stuttered, trying to read his face.

His glasses were lightly foggy and his cheeks showed a subtle pink color. His eyes stayed moving like he was searching for something on his desk.

"Hey don't worry about it, Kim." He told me, opening his notebook. It's as if he was trying to do anything but look at me. There is definitely something off about him, something that I never saw as a kid.

Just then, the teacher entered the room, which means my time was up with Jack. "Okay so how about this," I started, standing up out of my seat. "Why don't we hang out sometime. It'll be just like it used to when we were younger."

He seemed to be calculating what I said. He took a shaky breath before responding, "Okay."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Honestly, I was expecting him to say no. "Really? That's great. You don't have any plans this afternoon?"

He shook his head, "No, I don't have many plans. I'm free."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll text you the details."

But he didn't respond, although I did detect his voice to be a little more elated than usual. I guess this is a start.

I smiled to myself as I began to make my way back to my regular seat in chemistry, feeling giddier than I thought about finally being able to hang out with Jack.

I began to get my binder and notes out for class when I see Aaron coming over to me with a weird look in his eyes.

"You getting close to creeper over there?" He questioned, nodding towards Jack.

"Hey, he's not a creep, he's bullied."

Aaron raised his hands in defense, "Okay, well what're you guys doing?"